Postage meters are well known in the art. A typical postage meter stores and dispenses postage. Evidence that postage has been dispensed is most often in the form of a postal indicium that is printed on an envelope or other mail piece. As is well known, postage meters include an ascending register, that stores a running total of all postage dispensed by the meter, and a descending register that holds the remaining amount of postage credited to the meter. The descending register is reduced by the amount of postage dispensed during a transaction. The postage meter generally also includes a control sum register that provides a check upon the descending and ascending registers. The control sum register has a running account of the total funds having been added into the meter. The control sum register must always correspond with the summed readings of the ascending and descending registers. Thus, the control sum register is the total amount of postage ever put into the meter and it is alterable only when adding funds to the meter. In this manner, by inspecting the various registers and securing them from tampering, the dispensing of postal funds may be accurately recorded, tracked and accounted for.
It is typical of postal authorities, such as the United States Postal Service (USPS), to promulgate rules governing the placement, installation, registration and tracking of postage meters by postage meter manufacturers with users. For example, postal funds records for each postage meter may be maintained by the regional post offices wherein the postage meters are physically located. As such, the postage meter is typically registered (licensed) to a particular user at a specified location and assigned to a regional post office corresponding to the specified location. As another example, the postage meter is typically provided with the ability to print a geographic location indicator, such as a ZIP Code, as part of the postal indicium. In the United States, this geographic location indicator is part of the “town circle” information contained with the postal indicium and corresponds to the ZIP code of the regional post office where the postage meter is installed. Generally, postal authority rules require that the mail pieces be delivered to the corresponding regional post office. Thus, if a regional post office begins to receive a large volume of mail containing an incorrect geographic location indicator, then it may be an indication that the user or manufacturer has moved the postage meter from one location to another location. This necessitates an updating of the records that are kept by the postal authority and modification of the postage metering system by the manufacturer to update the geographic origin indicator.
These procedures, which may vary from country to country, provide a level of control and accountability for the use of the postage meter and assist the postal authority in their own internal processes. For example, revenue distribution to regional post offices depends on the accurate tracking of the locations of the postage meters and ensuring that each postage meter is registered to a licensing regional post office.
Many factors introduce inaccuracies into the list of postage meters and associated licensing post offices. Inaccuracies result in incorrect revenue distribution to such licensing post offices and less control over the postage meter population. As one example, recent advances in technology and postal regulations have dramatically reduced the physical size of the postage meters. As a result, the postage meters are more portable than ever before. With ease of movement, the user may be unaware of or may not remember about the regulations governing such relocation. As another example, lost and stolen postage metering systems are a continuing problem for both postage meter manufacturers and the postal authorities. While some of these losses are a direct result of fraudulent activity, it is believed that many are due to procedural oversights due to, for example, a customer relocation, sale of a business, incorrect address on a form, database mismatches and the like.
Therefore, there is a need for a postage meter system including geographic location capability that provides for efficiency of operation in tracking the whereabouts of individual postage meters.